The Slatest

Trump Suggests Ted Cruz Could Face Legal Challenge for Being Born in Canada

Trump Cruz
Donald Trump and Ted Cruz at the CNN presidential debate in Las Vegas on Dec. 15, 2015.

Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Famous birther Donald Trump is back in the birtherin’ game, suggesting to the Washington Post that Ted Cruz might face legal challenges to a potential presidency because he was born in Canada. (Cruz was born in Calgary, Alberta, to an American mother and was therefore a U.S. citizen at birth; his eligibility for the presidency is not actually in any legal question.) From the Post:

“Republicans are going to have to ask themselves the question: ‘Do we want a candidate who could be tied up in court for two years?’ That’d be a big problem,” Trump said when asked about the topic. “It’d be a very precarious one for Republicans because he’d be running and the courts may take a long time to make a decision. You don’t want to be running and have that kind of thing over your head.”

Trump added: “I’d hate to see something like that get in his way. But a lot of people are talking about it and I know that even some states are looking at it very strongly, the fact that he was born in Canada and he has had a double passport.”

(“A lot of people are talking about it.”)

Trump also raised the issue in December 2014 but then said it wasn’t a problem, telling ABC in September that he believed the matter had been “checked out by every attorney and every which way” and that “Ted is in fine shape.”

Cruz replied to Trump’s nonsense via Twitter by posting a clip of Fonzie jumping the shark in Happy Days, which is actually a pretty good response.